Plum-apricot hybrid tree (Royal Velvet Plum-Cot)

Abstract

The present invention relates to a plum-apricot hybrid tree and more particularly to a new and distinct variety broadly characterized by a dense, medium size, vigorous, tree that produces fruit that is similar to an apricot in skin appearance by having pubescence, but differs from a typical apricot by having a globose shape and by having a very dark purplish red skin color over its entire surface when mature. The fruit is of uniform medium size, has a sweetly delicious blend of both plum and apricot flavor, is firm for shipping, and matures under the ecological conditions described in late May, with first picking on May 19, 1989, making it an early ripening fruit compared with both plums and apricots. The variety was developed as the result of a seedling of an unknown plum as the seed parent and an unknown apricot as the per-chance pollen parent.

We claim: 
     
       1. A new and distinct variety of plum-apricot hybrid tree, substantially as illustrated and described, that most closely resembles the Red Velvet Plum-cot (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,011) by being self-sterile and by producing dark purplish red fruit that has skin pubescence, that is clingstone in type, and that is firm enough for commercial shipping, but is distinguished therefrom and an improvement thereon by having wood that is less brittle and by producing fruit that is globose in shape instead of oblong, much sweeter in flavor at shipping ripeness, more strongly attached to the stem, and 5 days later in maturing.